The prior art is replete with examples of hand-powered pump dispensers which comprise a pump body mounted on a container. The pump body includes a nozzle on the front end and an overhang on the rear end. The pump may include a vertically disposed cylinder having a piston operatively disposed within it such as shown, for example, in the McKinney U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,288 issued Jul. 17, 1979.
In a relatively recent development, the manufacture of such pump bodies in one piece has been disclosed in my patent application Ser. No. 09/176,752, filed Oct. 22, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,834 and assigned to the assignee of the present application. This disclosure describes molding the pump body from the bottom up whereby the lower mold part extends into the cavity of the upper mold part to structure the body parts as desired. Because the sloping rear end of the pump body and the top wall are uninterrupted surfaces, the pumps made under this disclosure appear conventional and unremarkable.
The present invention is based on the idea in a one-piece pump of providing the overhang with a comfortable ergonomic surface to be engaged by the dorsal web of the hand of the user in operation.